Sword and sorcery
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- This article is about a fantasy sub-genre. For information on the game company, see Sword & Sorcery.
Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a fantasy sub-genre featuring swashbuckling heroes in violent conflict with a variety of villains, chiefly wizards, witches, evil spirits, and other supernatural creatures.
The subgenre has old roots. Ultimately—like much fantasy—it draws from mythology and Classical epics such as Homer's Odyssey, but its immediate progenitors are the swashbuckling tales of Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers (1844), etc.) and Rafael Sabatini (e.g., Scaramouche (1921), itself rooted in the Italian commedia dell'arte) - although these all lack the supernatural element - and early fantasy fiction such as E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922) and Lord Dunsany's The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth (1910). In addition, many early S&S writers, such as Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, were heavily influenced by the Middle Eastern tales of the Arabian Nights, whose stories of magical monsters and evil sorcerers was a major influence on the genre to be. But S&S proper really began in the pulp fantasy magazines, most notably Weird Tales.
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Defining S&S
The term was coined in 1961 when the author Michael Moorcock published a letter in the fanzine Amra, asking for a name for the sort of fantasy-adventure story written by Robert E. Howard, and proposing "epic fantasy". Fritz Leiber replied in the journal Ancalagon (6 April 1961) suggesting "sword-and-sorcery as a good popular catchphrase for the field". He expanded on this in the July 1961 issue of Amra, commenting:
- "I feel more certain than ever that this field should be called the sword-and-sorcery story. This accurately describes the points of culture-level and supernatural element and also immediately distinguishes it from the cloak-and-sword (historical adventure) story—and (quite incidently) from the cloak-and-dagger (international espionage) story too!" (Fritz Leiber, Amra, July 1961)
Sword-and-sorcery has often been used as a catch-all phrase for a certain type of low grade fantasy that certainly influenced Dungeons and Dragons and the other TSR RPGs. Until quite recently, sword-and-sorcery was an oft used derogatory term amongst writers and readers of the fantasy genre. Magazines such as Black Gate and Flashing Swords have recently attempted to revive the genre to the state that it enjoyed during the pulp era of the twenties and thirties.
Many attempts have been made to redefine precisely what defines S&S as a clear sub-genre. Although many debate the finer points, the general consensus is that S&S is characterized by a strong bias toward fast-paced, action-rich tales set within a quasi-mythical or fantastical framework.
Seminal S&S
Seminal S&S books and series include:
- Robert E. Howard's tales of Conan the Barbarian, mostly in Weird Tales from 1932.
- Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique tales, beginning with "The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932).
- C. L. Moore's "Black God's Kiss" (1934), which introduced the first notable S&S heroine, Jirel of Joiry; the story was later collected with others in Jirel of Joiry (1969).
- Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser sequence, beginning with "Two Sought Adventure" (1939).
- Michael Moorcock's Elric sequence, beginning with The Dreaming City (published in Science Fantasy 1961).
- Karl Edward Wagner's Kane novels, beginning with Darkness Weaves first published in 1970.
Other pulp fantasy fiction - such as Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars and Leigh Brackett's Sea Kings of Mars - have a similar feel to S&S, but, because alien science replaces the supernatural, it is usually described as science fantasy or Sword and Planet.
S&S Heroines
Despite the early work of C. L. Moore and others, S&S has had a strongly masculine bias. Female characters were generally distressed damsels to be rescued or protected. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthology series (1984 onwards) attempted to redress the balance. Bradley encouraged female writers and protagonists: the stories feature skillful swordswomen and powerful sorceresses. The series was immensely popular and Bradley was editing the final volume at the time of her death. Today, active female characters who participate equally with the male heroes in the stories are a regular feature in modern S&S stories, though they are also relied upon for sex appeal.
Introduced as a minor character in a non-fantasy historical story by Robert E. Howard, "The Shadow of the Vulture," Red Sonya of Rogatine would later inspire a fantasy heroine named Red Sonja, who first appeared in the comic book series Conan the Barbarian written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith. Red Sonja received her own comic book title and eventually a series of novels by David C. Smith and Richard Tierney, as well as an unsuccessful film, Red Sonja (1985), directed by Richard Fleischer. A popular misconception (which even extends to the credits of the movie) holds that Robert E. Howard invented the character of Red Sonja in a Conan story.